Housekeeping at Roseburg Public Library

ROSEBURG, Ore. – It’s winter cleaning time at Roseburg Public Library, and the library team is spending a lot of energy in the stacks tidying up.

Youth Services Librarian Aurora Ropp is tackling the junior nonfiction area and withdrawing material that is at least 20 years old and has not checked out in the past four years. Many of the books are 36 years old, which Library Director Kris Wiley said is older than Ropp!

Withdrawing material -- also known as weeding -- is an essential component of collection development. Library staff’s goal is to provide a popular, circulating collection, so the staff focuses on adding new items and keeping the books that check out regularly.

With six years of experience at Roseburg Library, Wiley and Ropp said they feel comfortable they know the community and its readers well, and the pair takes pride in the time and expertise they dedicate to the collection.

“Most of the weeding decisions we make are simple,” Wiley said. “We focus on pulling books that are in poor condition, have been updated or are not circulating. Often with nonfiction books, we already own a similar item that is newer and more relevant. Sometimes we purchase a new book on the topic to replace the outdated information.”

Weeding creates space for new materials, and that is especially important in junior nonfiction, which is where staff shelves graphic novels. That genre is so popular, the only reason staff will withdraw an item is because it is falling apart. Ropp is growing the graphic novel section, and the library needs more room to house it.

Over the next couple of months, library staff will expand junior nonfiction, shift young adult nonfiction and reduce the space allocated for adult fiction. Wiley manages the adult collection, and she’s weeding novels that are at least four years old and have not checked out in at least two years.

“That does not mean I pull everything; rather, it means I inspect all of the books that fall in that category,” Wiley said. “Examples of books I keep: those that are part of a series that has checked out; many classics; and most books by Oregon authors or based in the state.”

Library staff regularly add new titles to the collection. In fact, last year they added 4,100 items -- 3,700 of which were purchased. Staff’s goal is to maintain a collection of 75,000 to 85,000 items, and the collection currently sits at 81,000.

Another housekeeping project involves the inventory process, which just started and much of which is completed by volunteers. They scan the barcode of every item in the library, and staff members follow up on missing titles. This ensures the library catalog is accurate.

Have questions about the library’s collection development? Email kwiley@roseburgor.gov or stop in for a chat.

“It’s one of my favorite topics,” Wiley added.